Friday, December 30, 2011

The
generation of Christ was in this wise. When his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph
etc.
(Matthew 1:18)

St. Matthew makes it very clear
that Mary is truly the Mother of Jesus, and this is affirmed also in the other
Gospels many times over. Throughout the Gospels and in the Church’s Tradition,
Mary is called the Mother of Jesus. Indeed, we know that (because Jesus is one
divine person) Mary is truly said to be the Mother of God.

However, given that Mary is the
Mother of Jesus with respect to his humanity, why do we not call the Holy Spirit
the Father of Jesus? Since it was by the power of the Holy Spirit that Mary
conceived, and since Mary is called the spouse of the Holy Spirit, why does the
Church refuse to say that Jesus is the Son of the Holy Spirit in his humanity?

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

And
the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory
as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John
1:14)

The mystery of the Incarnation
was effected by the Annunciation, nine months before Our Savior’s Nativity. The
Word was made flesh with our Lady’s fiat, and at that moment humanity was
joined to divinity in a personal union. The Child conceived is already a
perfect man, meriting the salvation of the whole world, praying in our behalf
and offering to God perfect worship. Further, Blessed Mary was already the “Mother
of God” at the Annunciation, for women are mothers from conception even before
giving birth.

Why, then, does the Church
celebrate the Birth of our Savior with greater solemnity than the Incarnation
itself (at the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25th)?

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Over the past week, we have
posted a few articles related to the temporal generation of the Son – on Mary’s
pregnancy [here],
on the miraculous birth itself [here],
and on the rational perfection of the Child conceived [here].

In these articles, we showed
that our Lady did not suffer any pain when giving birth to her Son, that the
physical closure of her virgin womb remained intact even in the very act of
giving birth (for Christ passed through without causing any harm to her
virginal integrity), and that the Christ Child already knew all created things
and loved each of us in his humanity from the very first moment of his
conception (thus, while an infant, he was already a rational man).

While all of these articles
were firmly rooted in the magisterial teachings of the Church and in the
doctrines of the Church Fathers, it is always good to compare our theological
insights with the lived faith of the great saints. We will not be the least
surprised to discover that the mystical revelations given to St. Bridget of
Sweden (surely, one of the greatest saint-mystics of the Church) wholly confirm
all that the saint-theologians have taught and all that the Magisterium has
declared.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

How
long wilt thou be dissolute in deliciousness, O wandering daughter? for the
Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth: A WOMAN SHALL COMPASS A MAN. (Jeremiah
31:22)

St. Thomas Aquinas, following
the tradition of the Fathers (especially St. Jerome) reads this verse from
Jeremiah as a prophetic sign that the Christ Child, from the first moment of
his conception and while yet enclosed within the womb of the Woman Mary, will be a “perfect man” – which means that he will have perfect
use of both reason and will.

Though, in general, by the “age
of reason” we refer to around six or seven years of age, the real meaning of the
phrase is to specify the point in which a child attains to the use of reason
and free-will. When a child is capable of making morally significant decisions,
we say that he has reached the “age of reason”.

Some will be quite surprised to
realize that the Church has taught, in her ordinary Magisterium, that Christ
our Savior had use of reason from the very first moment of his conception.
While yet in the womb, our Lord was a rational man in regard to the powers of
his human intellect, though his body was yet that of a tiny child.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The Church teaches de fide that Mary was a virgin before,
during, and after the birth of Christ our Savior. She conceived as a virgin,
she gave birth as a virgin, and she remains a virgin forever. Yet, we ask, What
does the Church mean when saying that Mary was a virgin “during birth”? What is
the mystery we contemplate in the third joyful mystery of the Rosary? Why do
the Popes and Church Fathers (together with the Doctors) insist that Christ’s
birth was “miraculous”?

While we will briefly consider
a few points from Scripture, our primary goal in this little article will be to
describe just what exactly it is that the Church means when she professes that
Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

The
angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a
virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s
name was Mary.

Familiar as we are with the narrative of St. Luke’s Gospel, we are tempted to take it for granted
that God sent the archangel Gabriel to announce the joyful news of the
Incarnation to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.

Yet, of course, it did not need
to have happened that way. God could have forgone the Annunciation all
together. Or one of the Persons of the Trinity could have appeared to Mary
rather than sending an angel. Further, even granting that God chose to send an
angel – he could have sent a seraphim rather than an archangel, or he could
have sent Michael rather than Gabriel.

Why then did God choose to send
an archangel? And why did he send Gabriel?

Thursday, December 15, 2011

But
Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”

The Gospel text recounting the
Annunciation of the angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary contains the
biblical evidence and proof that she had made a vow of virginity prior to her
conception of the Christ Child. Further, as we consider the historical
circumstances of her betrothal to Joseph, it will become quite clear that he
also had vowed perpetual continence as the spouse of our Lady.

Rather than discussing the universal
and emphatic teachings of the Fathers of the Church – all of whom assert that
Mary had made a vow of virginity – because such texts will often be ignored by
Protestants (to their eternal ruin), we will look simply at the Gospel text itself
and shall assert only those things which are affirmed also by the Evangelist.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

For nine months, the Blessed Virgin
Mary carried the Christ Child within her own body. She was “with child”,
pregnant. The body of our Lord grew within her over those nine months, and he
was sustained by the nourishment which was given him through her most pure
body.

St. John of the Cross, whose
feast we celebrate on Wednesday, writes beautifully of this mystery:

Del
Verbo divino

La
Virgen preñada

Viene
de camino

¡si
le dais posada!

With the divine Word

The Virgin heavy

Comes down the way

If only you'll
give her welcome!

During the season of Advent, we
await the Nativity of our Savior; and it is only natural that, meditating upon
the time before Christ’s birth, we should begin to ponder what the pregnancy
was like. In such matters as these – which touch upon the most intimate union of
our Lord and our Blessed Lady – we must write with great tenderness, caution,
love, devotion, and dignity.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

So
they asked him [John], “What are you then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am
not.”

In this Sunday’s Gospel, its
seems quite clear that St. John the Baptist is not Elijah – he even
specifically denies it saying, “I am not Elijah”. Hence, we ought to think that
John is not Elijah.

However, we may become confused
if we consider the Sunday Gospel in relation to the Saturday morning Gospel
(Matthew 17:9a,10-13) where Jesus says, “Elijah
will indeed come and restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already
come” … Then the disciples understood
that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.

The Savior makes this same
point even more explicitly when he says: For
all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to
accept it, he is the Elijah who is to come. He who has ears, let him hear.
(Matthew 11:13-15)

So, was or was not John the
Baptist Elijah? John denied it, but Jesus seems to affirm it.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

The dogma of the Immaculate
Conception refers, as we know, to the blessed Virgin Mother of God as having
been preserved from all sin (including the stain of original sin) from the
first moment of her conception. The dogma, of course, is about the Immaculate
Conception of Mary – even though many Catholics mistakenly think it refers to
the virginal conception of the Christ Child.

Still, this common
misconception about the Immaculate Conception leads us to a further point of reflection:
Was Christ immaculately conceived? Our answer to this Christological question
will help us to understand the Marian dogma in a new light.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

As we prepare for the solemnity
of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Thomists are forced to
face the rather popular criticism: “You know, St. Thomas doesn’t know
everything. After all, he denied the Immaculate Conception!”

Beyond the obvious fact that no
good Thomist would ever hold that St. Thomas knew literally everything in the
first place, and the fact that nearly every person in St. Thomas’ day who held
the Immaculate Conception held the dogma in a heretical way (claiming that our
Lady did not need a Redeemer), and also the further point that most of the best
theologians of the 12th and 13th centuries also seem to
have denied the doctrine (including Sts. Bernard, Anselm, Albert the Great, and
Bonaventure, as well as Peter Lombard and Hugh of St. Victor); beyond all of
that, there is this little point: St. Thomas did not (most probably) deny the
Immaculate Conception after all.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

John
the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins.

St. John the Precursor is a
central figure of the Advent season and his baptism is set before us not only
this Sunday but also the following. But why was John sent to baptize in the first place?

What was the value of John’s
baptism? Was it a sacrament? Did it forgive sins? Did it confer grace? Why did John baptize? We will see that our answer directs us to the devotion with which we must receive our Lord in Holy Communion, and the role that confession plays in preparing the way of the Lord.